Irvine's girls water polo team locked up second place in the Pacific Coast League, defeating Woodbridge, 5-4, Thursday afternoon at Woodbridge.

With the victory, the Vaqueros avoided a three-way tie for second place with Woodbridge and Beckman, which would have happened if Woodbridge had won.

The Warriors had several chances to tie the game in the final two minutes but Irvine, led by goalkeeper Paulina Urbanski, held off the threat.

Urbanski wound up with 10 saves to lead Irvine (14-13, 7-3).

"Give Woodbridge a lot of credit," Irvine Coach Scott Hinman said. "They're probably the most improved team in our league. The last couple of weeks, they've really come on. Coach (Dion) Gray has done a great job with them."

Woodbridge (16-8, 5-5) winds up in fourth place but Coach Gray expects the Warriors to advance to the playoffs as an at-large entry.

"We had an excellent team defensive game led by goalie Michele Pannier," Gray said. "The girls have really improved their play in the last month. We are playing well going into CIF (playoffs)."

Irvine gained some momentum for the start of the CIF Division 1 playoffs next week.

"Our goalie did great," Hinman said. "She gave up a couple of lobs, but she was nails on the outside stuff. Alex Swift and Haley Bowe did a great job on controlling their two-meter game."

Hinman said that Tiffany Nguyen, who had Irvine's first goal, also played well.

"She did so much," Hinman said.

Bowe had two goals to lead Irvine while Lauren Babb led Woodbridge with two goals.

Irvine held a 2-1 lead at halftime and led, 4-1, early in the third quarter before Lauren Babb scored twice for Woodbridge to cut the lead to 4-3. Bowe scored for Irvine but Keely Hamilton countered for Woodbridge to trim Irvine's lead to 5-4 going into the final quarter.

Irvine survived a 6-on-5 attempt by Woodbridge early in the fourth quarter and another shot with 10 seconds left which went to the left of the goal.

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